Central Asian leaders invited for R-Day

Central Asian leaders invited for R-Day

Part of: Prelims and GS-II – International relations

Context India has invited leaders of all five Central Asian nations to attend as chief guests of Republic Day.

• If they accept, this will be the first time all five countries will attend the Republic Day parade together

India and the Central Asia

• The Republic Day meeting will help strengthen India’s initiatives through Chabahar and through the International North South Transport Corridor.
• The invitation is part of India’s reach-out to the former Soviet States which has intensified since 2015.
• India joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2017, which all Central Asian States other than Turkmenistan are members of.
• The India-Central Asia dialogue was launched in 2019, and in July 2021, Minister of External Affairs attended the Central Asia-South Asia connectivity conference.

Do you know?

• Central Asia is a region in Asia which stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north
• It includes the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan